One of the biggest reasons that commercial property businesses might be struggling with growth could be due to their property management and sales divisions becoming siloed.
According to Leteicha Wilson, Ray White Commercial’s property management BDE, agents should ensure they’re seeking out investors’ intentions when conducting transactions; otherwise, they’re selling the business short.
“Most agents focus their energy towards sales and leasing transactions,” Ms Wilson remarked. “Sometimes commercial agents can overlook the importance of referring an investor and their property over to their property management department.
“We are in an industry where a client presents themselves to seek out a single service – to sell or lease their property for example – however, agents and the businesses they work in, become more than that. An agent may not only provide a great service by selling an asset, but they can also be a facilitator in providing a client with more than what they’ve come for, helping them with a full package of services for all of their real estate needs.”
In addition to being able to direct clientele to their in-house property managers, Ms Wilson also recommends that agents have their go-to roster of solicitors, brokers and tradespeople, too. Remember that recommendations work both ways.
“The benefit to the agent is not only being able to sell a complete package of services to their client, but the long-term return on investment for them. If a property is referred to their property management department, when it comes time to sell or lease again, that property they’ve referred will come back to them to facilitate the transaction,” Ms Wilson noted.
In her eyes, this helps build “an almost guaranteed pipeline of hot listings, and therefore potential deals”.
Real estate professionals who are able to take the long view, looking past just the immediacy of the sale, often understand this best and provide themselves with almost an automatic prospecting system.
“If the agent refers a multi-tenanted building to property management, over the course of a few years, they may complete numerous leasing deals and even provide themselves with an opportunity to sell,” Ms Wilson added.
She believes that as long as the flow of information is there, most of the work will look after itself.
“It is imperative that agents work closely with their property management departments to ensure clients are serviced from all aspects of the real estate process. As an agent, referring investors and their properties over to property management provides them with repeat business in relation to listings, now and well into the future,” she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Juliet Helmke
Based in Sydney, Juliet Helmke has a broad range of reporting and editorial experience across the areas of business, technology, entertainment and the arts. She was formerly Senior Editor at The New York Observer.
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